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Post your home theater setup

Cave Man said:
(Please note, this thread should be free of pictures. As moderator Blue Velvet has pointed out, there is another thread in another forum is for those.)

I'm surprised this hasn't been started yet, and a quick search didn't reveal anything. So, let's get this started...

Home Theater Setup
  • 2.33 gHz Core 2 Quad Q8200 Hackintosh (Asus P5N7A-VM) with nVidia 9300/4 gb/750 gb
  • Plex media software
  • Elgato Eye TV Hybrid (roof-top antenna)
  • 1.5 TB Seagate
  • Sanyo PLV-Z2000 1080p projector (connected by DVI to HDMI cable)
  • Onkyo HT-S580 5.1 DD/DTS surround sound HTIB (connected by Toslink cable)
  • Harmony 520 remote
  • Draper LUMA 69x92" matte white screen

Apple TV Setup
  • Modified eSATA with 750 gb Samsung boot drive in Rosewill enclosure
  • Samsung 40" LCD TV (connected by HDMI cable)
  • Onkyo HT-R420 5.1 DD/DTS surround sound receiver with 2.1 speaker system (connected by Toslink cable)
Click to expand...

Aren't there possible legal issues with Hackintosh/OSX86? I just found about that a few days ago, not to mention just buying a proper Mac outright in lieu of tinkering and hoping it works... Apple's build quality is definitely a step above the rest and there's no bloody spyware and bloatware... not to mention the 24" iMacs make up the cost on their own with the monitor panel used (H-IPS and not the rubbish TN garbage in consumer 24" units selling for $500...)
 
Possible? Sure. Likely? I doubt it. It's unclear if the EULA is enforceable if you buy a copy of Leopard (which I've done for both of mine). In all likelihood, Apple isn't too concerned about hackintoshes that use a purchased retail copy of Leopard, but that's just speculation on my part. I know more than a dozen people who made hackintoshes out of their PCs and enjoyed OS X so much they ended up buying a real Mac (mostly laptops, but a few Minis/iMacs). It seems like a good "switcher" tool, IYAM. I think one has to have specific needs not filled by Apple's lineup to build a hackintosh. For me, there's only one Mac (Mac Pro) that can do what I need but I don't want a server-grade computer. It would be way overkill for my purposes.
 
Cave Man said:
Possible? Sure. Likely? I doubt it. It's unclear if the EULA is enforceable if you buy a copy of Leopard (which I've done for both of mine). In all likelihood, Apple isn't too concerned about hackintoshes that use a purchased retail copy of Leopard, but that's just speculation on my part. I know more than a dozen people who made hackintoshes out of their PCs and enjoyed OS X so much they ended up buying a real Mac (mostly laptops, but a few Minis/iMacs). It seems like a good "switcher" tool, IYAM. I think one has to have specific needs not filled by Apple's lineup to build a hackintosh. For me, there's only one Mac (Mac Pro) that can do what I need but I don't want a server-grade computer. It would be way overkill for my purposes.
Click to expand...

Considering you can easily build a mini-tower Hackintosh that will beat a 4-core Mac Pro in most tests for $800 (plus the cost of OS X) and is at least as expandable if not more so than the real one, I'd say Hackintosh is the way to go at this point. You can get a pretty nice Hackintosh Netbook for $350 or less too (hardware only). Apple cannot or will not compete with every day consumer hardware and I'm afraid it will eventually be their undoing. When people realize they're buying the same hardware parts for 1.5-3x as much (just look at the cost of ram or graphics cards for the Mac Pro and what Apple wants for them versus the same parts for the PC from just about anyone else and you'll see what I mean). To me, there's a difference between making a fair profit and gouging and Apple likes to gouge because they know they have no true (supposedly legal anyway) competitors for hardware if you want the OS X operating system. If you're going to promote Capitalism in the US then you should have to compete, IMO. Apple has been protected for far too long as it is, IMO. They're clearly making huge profits due to the lack of competition for hardware and that's just not right when the hardware side is just off-the-shelf parts. Charge for OS X if you must, but don't mark up hardware just because you can. That's just bad business, especially when the moved production to Communist China and didn't even lower the prices (just milked the extra profits). I can't help but wonder if the quality drop in Macs over the past several years have been due to that move for that matter. It just seems like everything made in China is sub-standard quality compared to when it was made in the U.S. or Japan or any other number of countries where they pay more than 10 cents an hour for qualified workers. At least Dell still assembles their PCs in the U.S. I'd much rather buy their hardware than Apple's for that reason alone even. Ironically, I would be willing to pay substantially more for an Apple brand computer IF they were still made in the USA like my 2001 era PowerMac was.
 
I live in a college apartment, so I don't have much room for an extravagant setup. I keep my tv in my bedroom in front of my bed, mounted on the wall to conserve space. My current media setup is a work in progress since i'm upgrading the server end of my network. so far I have;
Sony Bravia 46" XBR4
Mac Mini (2.26ghz, Current Model)
PlayStation3
No major sound system
the bravia's speakers are phenomenal and i'm in an apartment anyways
I'm using plex as my interface (i can't wait for them to implement absolute ordering, my library is absent of all of my anime)

The server end of my system is run off of an ubuntu 9.04 box, 2 tb drives shared over smb, one for backups, one for media (9.04 broke my netatalk install). I'm moving all of the server roles to the mac mini and getting a drobo though. It can handle the extra cpu cycles. The current server is an old 1.8ghz athlon xp (32-bit). It needs to go.

I'm also working on getting a logitech harmony one since plex natively supports the harmony remotes, and an elgato eyetv hybrid.

Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/apocrathia/3451530104/in/set-72157615678874267/

3451530104_0c3cc39b73.jpg
 
Over the last months i replaced and relocated some of my equipment, so here is the new list:

Living room:
Samsung LE-40A789 TV
Popcornhour A110 Streaming client
Sherwood 5.1 AV Receiver
2 x Heco Victa 500
Dreambox 8000 HD SatPVR 750 GB HardDisk runnning CCCam server for "HomeSharing"

Cellar (Game&Computer room):
Sony Bravia 32V4000
Playstation 3
Dreambox 800 HD SatPVR 320 GB HardDisk connecting to CCCam Server

Bedroom:
Samsung 22' LCD TV
Dreambox 7000 160GB connecting to CCCam Server

Popcornhour Streaming from a Synology 207+ with an WesternDigital MyBook Studio 2 Terabyte hooked up over eSata.

Seems i should take a rest from buying and setting up things and actually use all this stuff... :eek:
 
Apocrathia said:
I live in a college apartment, so I don't have much room for an extravagant setup. I keep my tv in my bedroom in front of my bed, mounted on the wall to conserve space. My current media setup is a work in progress since i'm upgrading the server end of my network. so far I have;
Sony Bravia 46" XBR4
Mac Mini (2.26ghz, Current Model)
PlayStation3
No major sound system
the bravia's speakers are phenomenal and i'm in an apartment anyways
I'm using plex as my interface (i can't wait for them to implement absolute ordering, my library is absent of all of my anime)

The server end of my system is run off of an ubuntu 9.04 box, 2 tb drives shared over smb, one for backups, one for media (9.04 broke my netatalk install). I'm moving all of the server roles to the mac mini and getting a drobo though. It can handle the extra cpu cycles. The current server is an old 1.8ghz athlon xp (32-bit). It needs to go.

I'm also working on getting a logitech harmony one since plex natively supports the harmony remotes, and an elgato eyetv hybrid.

Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/apocrathia/3451530104/in/set-72157615678874267/

3451530104_0c3cc39b73.jpg
Click to expand...

Kids these days! I had a 13" TV with rabbit ears, a Mac SE/30, and a Hayes 2400 baud modem back when I was in college. I was the shiznitz for being the only kid in my dorm with a computer and a Prodigy account.
 
Sony Bravia 40" TV
2009 mac mini: 2 ghz, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB 7200 RPM HD
eyeTV hybrid 2009
logitech dinovo edge mac edition

That's all. :) (have put it together over the last two weeks with the final piece, the keyboard, getting added yesterday. So far it works extremely well for what I want, and I don't think I need anything else. My one complaint is with the eyeTV - it's on the back of the mini, obviously, so the eyeTV remote really doesn't work because it doesn't have a line of sight to the receiver.)

oh, btw: the dinovo edge is expensive but "only" $106 (instead of $160) if you get it on Amazon. and it's worth every penny. What an amazing product - i still use the apple remote, but the dinovo edge is really the only input device needed.
 
I know there is another thread where people can post pictures that show off their mac setup, but this is the home theater setup thread and it really is better with pictures.

But i'll play along:

Living Room
50" Sony SXRD
PS3, 360, Wii
Denon 3806
Kilipsch Rf-25 set of speakers
40gb AppleTV
Harmony 880

Bedroom
42" Panasonic Plasma
40gb AppleTV
Sony HTIB, forget model - just use it to have 5.1 in the bedroom
Harmony 880

2nd room
26" sony lcd
40gb AppleTV
no audio solution aside from the speakers in the tv.

All of this is driven by a 20" iMac with a Drobo connected to it, with 4 1TB western digital green hard drives.
 
My setup keeps evolving, but I think we've got it pretty much set. At the beginning of the year, we cancelled DirecTV after 11 years and getting all our content OTA-HD and over the internets. Everything is pretty much automated thanks to Hazel, Applescript, shell scripting, Automator and Windows command prompt.

OFFICE: SERVER/RIP/ENCODE (All content is processed, stored and served from this machine)
Mac Pro (Early 2008) 8-Core 2.8Ghz
(4) Internal Seagate 1.5TB SATA HD (RAID-0)
Internal LG Blu-Ray/SuperDrive (Optical Bay-1)
Internal Pioneer SuperDrive (Optical Bay-2)
Drobo FW-800 w/ (4) Seagate 1.5TB HD (Clone Backup)
NewerTech Voyager e-SATA Dock (Archiving and Off-site Backup)
Mac Software: Mac OS 10.5.6, FairMount, HandBrakeCLI, mp4v2, MetaX, Hazel
VMWare Fusion/Windows 7 Software: AnyDVD HD, Eac3to, TSMuxer

FAMILY ROOM:
Mac Mini (2009) 2.0Ghz (DIY Upgrades: 4GB Ram, 320 WD Black 7200rpm HD) (The Main iTunes Library is located on this machine and always running, media is streamed from Mac Pro)
NewerTech MiniStack FW-800 w/ Seagate 1TB SATA HD (Clone Backup and EyeTV Storage)
Elgato 2009 EyeTV Hybrid & Turbo.264 HD
Software: Mac OS 10.5.6, EyeTV 3.1x, Front Row, Boxee, Plex, Remote Buddy, AirMouse, Hazel
AppleTV 160GB w/ ATV Flash Hack
Pioneer Kuro PDP-5020FD Plasma
Panasonic BD-55 Blu-Ray Player
TiVo HD DVR
Pioneer Elite VSX-45TX Receiver (Used as pre-amp for 5.1, internal amps drive back speakers for 7.1)
Anthem MCA-50 5-Channel Amplifier
Nintendo Wii
Atlantic Technology System-370 THX Speaker System
AudioQuest & MonoPrice Cables
Logitech Harmony 890 w/ Wireless Extender
Dedicated 1st Gen iPhone

BEDROOM:
Sony 42in LCD
AppleTV 80GB w/ ATV Flash Hack
URC MX-650 Remote
 
Living Room setup

At present:

Samsung 40" LCD (Wall Mounted)
B&W (Bowers and Wilkins) MT-30 5.1 wall mounted speaker setup - bloody awsome :):)
Silver Anniversary Speaker Cable
Onkyo SR606 Amp (replacing my Yamaha 1700 series which now resides in the spare bedroom setup - not yet complete)
PS3 - 60Gb
Mac Mini Core Duo with dual 250Gb Externals Striped
Apple Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
Apple TV 160Gb
Sky+ HD
IXOS HDMI Leads
Logitech Harmony 885 Universal Remote

Only 1 HDMI goes to TV, everything else via AMP and upscaled if required.
 
All that McIntosh equipment makes me weep tears of jealousy.

My set up:

Sony KDS-R60XBR1 60" SXRD RPTV (older, but classy)
Klipsch RF-3II mains
Klipsch RC-3II center
Klipsch RS-3II surrounds
SVS PC12-Plus cylindrical subwoofer
Nintendo Wii
Sony Playstation 3 60GB
Xbox 360 Elite
Sony STR-DG800 7.1-Channel Receiver (the current weak link in the system - no HDMI audio and the sound quality is nothing spectacular)
 
URC MX-3000 remote

mark34 said:
AppleTV... bone stock (well I added Boxee but dont use it)
JVC RS-1 Front Projector
DVDO VP50 external video processor
McIntosh MX-119 Pre-Pro
McIntosh MC-207 7 channel amplifier
Playstation 3 Blu-Ray player.. going to buy new one with 7 X analog outputs
Toshiba HD-XA2 HD-DVD player. analog outs to McIntosh for lossless audio
Time Warner DVR with eSATA hard drive
Klipsch THX Ultra2 7 channels (fantastic for home theater, a little less popular with the pure 2 channel audio people)
JL F113 subwoofer (so good I replaced the awesome 2 subs from the Ultra 2 with it)

URC MX 3000 remote
135" Stewart Fixed Screen
8 theater seats / 2 level seating, approximately 21' X 12'
Butt kicker transducers in every seat with separate amplifier for each row.
Full acoustical treatment
All the misc power conditioners, etc

I built my house a year ago and had the opportunity I dreamed of: to have a clean sheet opportunity to design a dedicated Home Theater. I am fortunate to be a pretty busy guy otherwise I could disappear in this place.. Amazing. I am so grateful for the experience.
Click to expand...

Guys...

That URCMX3000 remote is really great. Though I did have to dive in for a new battery more quickly than i wanted...

I've used these guys for it (and for other similar stuff): www.batterytex.com

Pretty good prices, staff, etc.

No complaints.

-D$
 
ATV 40GB streaming from 400GB disc attached to Mac mini
Samsung BD-P1500 BD/DVD player
Pioneer DVL 919E LD/DVD combi player
Xbox 360 + HD DVD drive
JVC SVHS
Series 1 TiVo (hacked to work in NZ)
Yamaha RX-V861 HDMI upscaling amp
Arion Electra valve (tube) amp
Celestion 7000 ribbon speakers (4 feet tall, amazing sound quality), Celestion centre and surrounds
InFocus In76 DLP 720p projector
100" 16:9 ceiling mounted screen

Sorry about the rather poor quality of these images. Basically just showing that the screen folds right away and when in use it is the biggest image I could get in the room.
 

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my bedroom setup

Home Theater

Sharp 46" 'D64U series'
Denon AVR988
Polk Audio RTI A7 (fronts), CSI A6 (center), RTI A3 (surrounds)
Omni Mount stands for my RTI A3's
SVS SB12+
Xbox360 Black w/ HD DVD add on and a white first gen Zune for streaming music
PS3
Apple TV w/ a Drobo=3 Western Digital Black 1TB for now
Toshiba HD DVD HDA30
FIOS HD
Monster Power HDP1800
Monster Power HTS 3600

...all in my Bedroom BTW.:D
 


Sony Bravia 40"
Sony Home Cinema DAV-IS10 with really small great speakers (one of them visible on floor:D)
SKY HD
Apple TV (of course!!!)
Panasonic DVD recorder.

Not much in compare to rest of you guys but works great for me.

I got Slingbox in other location so I am thinking of Slingcatcher now. But since upload is not the best now for TV quality I will stick to my Slingplayer on iPhone.
 
munkees said:
can you plug external dives into the Apple TV and use them?
Click to expand...
Yes , you can. You need hack your :apple:TV. There are few free options available but most elegant which I came across is aTVflash.
After when you crack it :apple:TV become a bit unstable but you gain few more features there in exchange to play with and one of them is to connect external hard drive.
 
32" LCD HDTV
Dish Network HD receiver w/ my own 650GB external HD for DVR
Modded xBox w/ upgraded 80GB HD (for games, etc...) w/ XBMC
500 GB NAS (Buffalo LinkStation) for media - mostly movies
Progressive Scan DVD player
Yamaha receiver
Yamaha speakers
HDMI and Toslink connecting everything except the xbox which is YPbPr and analog audio

I'm sure there's more advanced setups - especially for the media center capabilities, but XBMC has played everything I've thrown at it, and it works great for me. Plus I can play tiger woods and halo between movies without having to move a muscle :D
 
100" 16x9 High Power Da-lite Screen
Mitsubishi HC1600 720P Projector
Onkyo 7.1 Reciever
Mac Mini (2.2Ghz 4Gig Ram)- DVI-HDMI/optical audio
500G external storage w/FW800
Time warner HD cable - Component/digital audio
Xbox160 - Component/optical audio
Wii - Composite/LR audio


The cable modem and dual band router are in this "rack" as well. Mini and Xbox are wired connections. I have all the video running into the projector and the audio going to the reciever seperatly. The room is not totaly light controlled due to a very large bay window. The high power screen gives a good picture even during the day with the curtains open. With the curtains closed or at night the picture is stunning.
 
58" Panasonic Plasma 1080p
Pioneer 1016 reciever
PS3
Directv HR22
Kilpsch RF 82 RC 52 RS 52 Sub 12
All Monster wiring
Monster HTS 1600
Harmony 1000

I have my PS3 networked with Vuze so all my movies on my PC stream, Vuze is sweet if you've never used it!

(I used to work at Best Buy so emp. discount was awesome, all this prob would have cost me $10K but I prob paid $3K)
 
42 in Panasonic Viera
Apple TV 40 gig. Streams my movies from iMac with external 1TB HD, kids movies on Apple TV's HD.
Directv HDDVR
Playstation 3 80 gig

All three connected via HDMI.

The Viera is the cheaper model that doesn't do 1080p, which I don't think matters unless the TV is bigger than 50 inches.

I don't have any external sound at this time, maybe I'll get when my kids are older and won't attack the speakers.
 
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